Behind the still-growing craze over food trucks, there’s a notion that these rolling kitchens are a bastion of mom-and-pop operators and startup chefs skirting the traditional restaurant model to bring upscale grub to the masses.

But L.A. company Mobi Munch Inc. debunks that notion.

The company is raising millions in capital, buying dozens of trucks and working with independent operators as well as big restaurants and food service giants such as Aramark Corp., which late last year put nine Mobi Munch trucks into service on college campuses.

Mobi Munch appears to be the first company to draw serious investment into the gourmet food truck business and the first to push gourmet truck service into the corporate world. Josh Tang, the company’s chief executive, said those breakthroughs show that food trucks have moved into the mainstream and carry a vast reservoir of untapped potential with them.

“Rather than people thinking it’s a fad, it’s an industry awakening,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any way it’s going to turn backward. Assuming the economy is going to be stagnant for a while, this is still the most cost-effective way to get into business or expand your brand.”

Typically, gourmet and more blue-collar food trucks alike are leased from small local companies that also operate commissaries. Operators can park overnight, clean their rigs, and restock with food, fuel and other supplies.

But Mobi Munch, co-founded in 2009 by Tang, a tech entrepreneur, and Northern California restaurant consultants Ray Villaman and Aaron Noveshen, offers a much broader suite of services, including menu planning, social media tools and even back-office software.

Those services, along with the company’s national reach – it owns more than 40 trucks spread from Los Angeles to Boston – and its service to corporate customers make Mobi Munch a different kind of player in the food truck industry, said Matt Geller, chief executive of the food truck trade group Southern California Mobile Food Vendors Association.

The company’s model helped Mobi Munch raise $7.6 million in series A funding in 2011. Geller said that’s the first big investment in the food truck industry and one that could pay off thanks to a business model focused on big, stable clients such as Aramark and national restaurant chains.

“Their individual operator side is less their focus,” he said. “They’re going with established brands that understand the industry.”

Wide array

From designing and outfitting trucks to creating menus built around the limitations of a mobile kitchen, Mobi Munch has a hand in nearly every part of the food truck business.

The company owns and operates two of its own trucks: the Chairman, which serves Taiwanese sandwiches in San Francisco, and the Ludo Truck, which serves fried chicken in Los Angeles. While a small part of the company’s overall business, Tang said operating the trucks is important for Mobi Munch’s street cred.

“The industry is still changing a lot and this helps us keep our fingers on the pulse,” he said.

Mobi Munch also offers food truck location management services, allowing event organizers and food truck lots to let Tang and company book reservations and collect fees from truck operators.

But the bulk of the company’s business is in renting trucks to others. Of its fleet of about 40 trucks, about half are leased to independent operators.

Trucks cost between $3,000 and $5,000 per month, depending on the model. That’s not cheap, but still less expensive than leasing a brick-and-mortar restaurant. Mobi Munch also offers leases as short as 12 months, while building leases often last for at least a few years.

The private company, based in downtown Los Angeles, has about 20 employees. Tang declined to disclose its annual revenue.

Trucks come with a point-of-sale system that not only processes customer payments but also keeps track of a truck’s sales mix. Mobi Munch also offers software that lets operators make a location schedule and automatically alert Twitter and Facebook followers of their truck’s location.

While all its service offerings set Mobi Munch apart from other truck lessors, perhaps the biggest distinction is the company’s deals with corporate clients.

Its trucks have been leased by restaurant chains such as Carlsbad’s Rubio’s Restaurants Inc. and Red Robin International Inc. of Greenwood Village, Colo. And its biggest clients are national food service companies Aramark; Centerplate of Stamford, Conn.; and Eurest Services of Wayne, Pa.

Those companies operate dining venues and concessions at stadiums, colleges and other locations. With nine trucks, Aramark is Mobi Munch’s biggest customer.

Aramark did not return calls, but Tang said Mobi Munch’s draw for big food service companies is clear: Consumers want food trucks, and Aramark and others want a quick and easy way to provide them.

“They don’t have to buy the trucks,” he said. “And they may win or lose contracts every year, so they don’t have to spend money building out infrastructure that they may not need later on.”

Some corporate clients, such as Red Robin, sell their own signature dishes from their trucks, which typically carry the client’s name on the truck. Others serve from menus under one of several brands Mobi Munch developed in-house. The company’s brands include taco and burrito truck La Lola Loca and Asian-fusion truck Fàn Boy. A client, such as Aramark, can lease the truck including the brand.

Aramark has nine trucks on college campuses in the South and Southwest, including at the University of Central Arkansas, Arizona State University and Florida State University – all locations where there are college kids hungry for food trucks but without the critical mass of trucks found in Southern California, New York and other major metro areas.

Indeed, Tang said Mobi Munch has few trucks in Los Angeles because the market is so saturated.

He said that he expects to see more demand from colleges, which should drive up business for Mobi Munch.

“Aramark has over 400 university clients, and colleges are the ones asking for food trucks,” he said. “Students want food trucks, and if I’m a college, I want to please my customers.”

Whether from food services providers at colleges or other corporate accounts, Geller said he expects Mobi Munch to continue to expand – and for Mobi Munch to be just the first of many food truck companies to raise cash from serious investors.

“I don’t know of any others, but I think we’ll start to see that change,” Geller said. “The world is mad for food trucks.”